Across five independent albums and a decade-plus of touring, Wade Bowen has amassed a string of regional hits and awards, and also a fan base who is passionate about music. Indeed, in the fourteen years since Bowen launched his career at Stubb’s Barbecue in Lubbock, Texas, he’s risen from collegiate greenhorn to the top of the Texas music and Red Dirt circuit. His colleagues and friends Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Eli Young Band and others had made the major-label leap, helping to take a vibrant regional sound to the rest of America. Now Bowen is poised to bring that Red Dirt and independent spirit to country music at large. Wade’s baritone is dense and concentrated, with traces of whisky and smoke and an autumnal warmth. Bowen takes command of his songs, cutting over the top of producer Justin Niebank’s sculpted guitar-scapes on his latest release "The Given." The sound is one hundred percent country, rife with pedal steel and vivid emotion, but it’s also music that could easily find a home with fans of Bowen’s rock idols – folks like Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne. Take a few passes through this project and you’ll hearing a singer’s singer and a focused songwriter who’s adding layers to his music all the time.On a live circuit where the overwhelming mandate is to stir up a party, Bowen has aimed to leave folks with a memory. As a writer, even one from a state with some tall literary traditions, he’s not trying to earn a PhD in poetry; he’s trying to communicate. “My style,” he says, “is more to try to evoke an emotion. I’m more about trying to leave a mark on people.”Growing up in Waco, Bowen’s exposure to the music of Texas was limited to whatever made it on FM country radio. George Strait was king. Guy Clark was a name he’d not have recognized before getting to college. But at school, in Lubbock, he discovered the full spectrum of Texas artistry, starting with Robert Earl Keen. “He was a big changing point in my life,” says Wade. “I realized by listening to him that there was way more out there than I ever knew. So I started getting into Guy Clark and other great Texas music. But I was obsessed with Robert Earl. When we started the band we were sort of a Robert Earl cover band.”That band was called West 84, and they found that with their large posse of friends who’d always show up for a good time, it was easy to land gigs. Bowen meanwhile began to channel a lifelong love of writing into songs, and when college ended he made two major decisions. He took on the role of solo artist, and he moved to Austin. By then, about 2001, fellow Waco native Pat Green had busted out to national prominence and the Texas music phenomenon was the buzz of Nashville. It was part of Wade Bowen’s inspiration to charge ahead.Try Not To Listen is the album Wade regards as his true debut, the project that kicked off a life and living made of 200-plus nights a year on the road and patient grassroots fan development. Then with Lost Hotel in 2006, things really began to click. The opening track “God Bless This Town” reached No. 1 on the bellwether Texas Music Chart, and to date, Bowen has had a total of 10 Number 1's and 15 Top 5 Singles on the Texas Music Chart. He achieved another landmark in 2010, when he was invited to add his name to the roster of great artists who’ve made a Live At Billy Bob’s CD/DVD combo at the iconic club in Fort Worth.

Arriving at the peak of the so-called "bro country" phenomenon of the 2010s, Kip Moore's breakthrough hit "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" was one of the classics of the genre: a big, shiny tune about good times, cold beer, cute girls, and reliable vehicles. Once it took off in 2012, a few more hits followed -- including the equally emblematic "Beer Money" and "Hey Pretty Girl" -- but the roads weren't always smooth; it took him three years and one scrapped record before he delivered Wild Ones in the summer of 2015. Born and raised in Tifton, Georgia near the Florida-Georgia state line, Kip Moore was the son of a golfer and a painter. He spent most of his school years playing sports but his attention turned toward playing music while attending Hanceville, Alabama's Wallace State Community College. Moore transferred to Georgia's Valdosta State University on a golf scholarship but soon was lured away by music, finding his first gig at a local Mellow Mushroom and playing with a band. Once he graduated college, he decided to live in Hawaii for a spell before heading to Nashville in 2004. Earning a paycheck as a manager at Abercrombie & Fitch, Moore chipped away at music, starting to earn a reputation in songwriting circles, placing songs with Jake Owen and Thompson Square. In 2008, Creative Artist Agency's Marc Dennis brought Moore to the attention of Joe Fisher at Universal Group Nashville, who signed the songwriter to a deal and paired him with Brett James, who wound up producing Moore's 2012 debut, Up All Night. First came the single "Mary Was the Marrying Kind," which went to 45 on the Billboard's Country chart, but the record that launched Kip's career was "Something' 'Bout a Truck," a single released in September 2011. Over the next few months, it climbed to number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart -- it also reached 29 on the Hot 100 -- on its way to a double-platinum certification. In the wake of its success, Moore released Up All Night in April 2012 and its next two singles were also Top Ten country hits: "Beer Money" went to seven in the second half of 2012, while "Hey Pretty Girl" became a platinum hit in early 2013.The first sign of Moore's second album arrived in October of 2013, when he released "Young Love." This topped out at 26, which wound up better than his next single, "Dirt Road." Released in April 2014, "Dirt Road" "stiffed" according to Moore, so he and his label decided to scrap the planned second album and have the singer/songwriter compose a brand-new record. The first single, "I'm to Blame," reached 26 in the spring of 2015 and then the full-length Wild Ones showed up in August 2015. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Lauren Alaina captured America's heart when she appeared on American Idol in 2011 and revealed her enthusiasm, humor and warmth, as well as a commanding voice with an impressive range that has been compared to the genre's premier vocalists, including Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. She helped make the show's season finale the most popular in the franchise's history with 122.4 million votes cast and 38.6 million viewers. Shortly after placing second in the competition, Lauren signed her record deal with 19/Interscope/Mercury Records. Her debut album, WILDFLOWER, was the portrait of the then-16-year-old's personality, optimism, and life experiences. The album spawned the hits LIKE MY MOTHER DOES, GEORGIA PEACHES, and 18 INCHES, and helped earn Lauren the 2012 title of New Artist of the Year by the American Country Awards. After years of touring with everyone from Sugarland to Alan Jackson to Jason Aldean, Lauren has spent much of 2014 writing songs with Nashville's best craftsmen for her 2015 album release.

Jordan’s competitive nature began at a young age. Sports and music ran on parallel tracks for the Loganville, Georgia native. “My dad’s from Chicago, a big Cubs fan and baseball is lifeblood up there,” Jordan says. “So me and my brothers were raised with that and I was infatuated with it from a young age. I played from the time I could hold a ball up until I was about 16. My dad’s also a pastor and sang a little bit – he’d lead a special song one Sunday a month. He tells a story about me being three or four singing along with the radio and he turned to my mom and said, ‘He’s on key!’” Speaking of keys, it’s his dad that Jordan credits as being key to shaping his musical influences. “My dad was a huge Country music fan – Kenny Rogers, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, John Michael Montgomery, Tracy Lawrence. All the guys from that ‘90s era have always been big influences for me as well.” But don’t let that decade fool you: Jordan’s music speaks to his peers – the millennials, the social media generation, the dreamers, the do-ers. The 21-year-old’s music chronicles his everyday life – from the parties to the tender moments to the lofty dreams attainable just over the horizon. It is, in a term, the voice of “Young Country” as evidenced in Jordan’s lead single “Feels Like One Of Them.” “I love how wide open it is, musically and lyrically,” Jordan says of the song. “It’s about being open to possibility, being right there on the front edge of something and having this tremendous anticipation. All of us have those nights where we can just feel the great memories coming on, but this song also gets me thinking about being on the verge of a brand new adventure with my career.” Jordan picked up the guitar at 15, aided by a deal with his father. “If he saw me with the guitar in my hands every day when he came home from work, I didn’t have to do any chores that summer. I was like, ‘Deal!’ Of course, I had no idea how hard it would be to learn. I’m completely self-taught. Watched a few YouTube videos and from there it was simply trial and error. I started writing songs about the same time and they were god-awful.” Jordan’s first gig was a county fair where he played four of his favorite covers for a crowd of 50. “When I got offstage I walked up to my mom and said, ‘That was fun. I want to do that forever.'” Easier said than done as a high school student, but Jordan’s competitive drive found a way – with a little help from his family. “Most places you had to be 18 to even get in,” Jordan says. “My mom would call to talk the manager into it. She’d walk me in, sit in the front row and walk me out. It was, ‘Don’t touch anything. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t take anything from anyone. Just play and slip out.'” Barry Williams, Jason Aldean’s father, came on board at this time. “We met through a mutual friend from playing county fairs,” Jordan says. “He booked shows, set up meetings and got songwriting appointments when I was about 17 or 18. That was my first connection to Nashville.” In 2013, after years of playing the club scene, frat parties and college bars – while also traveling to Nashville for a week each month to write – Jordan received a call from Jeremy Stover, producer for Justin Moore and Craig Campbell, among others. The #1 charting producer was looking for an acoustic opener for Justin Moore’s Off the Beaten Path Tour and thought Jordan was the perfect fit. Jumping onto a fast-moving national tour was a prodigious leap. The young artist held his own, playing acoustically between seasoned veterans and #1 hit makers Randy Houser and Moore. It also proved to be an invaluable education. “The biggest thing I learned offstage was how to treat people. Justin and his crew were always patient when stuff didn’t go right. Onstage, I learned how to interact with a crowd. For the first month of that tour, I’d play my set, run all my stuff back to the bus, then sit front-of-house for Justin’s whole show. I would just watch and learn everything I could. What does he do during different songs? How does he talk to the crowd? What does he do if something goes wrong? It was really great to see that at a young age. I learned so much about how to carry yourself on and off stage.” Rager spent fall of 2013 through the first half of 2014 on the tour. He signed a joint management deal with Barry Williams and Peter Hartung (Justin Moore/ Dustin Lynch) and signed with Broken Bow Records the following September. Shortly after landing his record deal, he went back on tour with Justin Moore – this time with a full band. On stage, Jordan’s competitive drive, instilled in him at such a young age, immediately shines through. There are moments at the plate where one must stand and deliver – and Jordan, unflinchingly, does. “When I go to a show, I want to be entertained just like everybody else. So when it’s me onstage, I try to give the crowd what I would want to see. When the groove is going, the band is rocking and I’m rocking, then the crowd starts giving it back ¬– that’s as good as it gets.”

Among the parade of generic office parks lining Fulton Industrial Boulevard in Atlanta resides a unit stocked with contents that are anything but ordinary.

Painted fiberglass mushrooms the size of a Mazda lean against the floor. Candy cane-striped poles are tucked tightly together as if sharing bunk beds. Triple stacks of green and yellow picnic tables look like flattened turtles.

If Disney World and Home Depot mated, the result would look something like the innards of this 50,000-plus-square-foot warehouse housing a chunk of the decorations and supplies for TomorrowWorld.

The massive electronic dance music festival, which has boasted an annual parade of 300 DJs/producers including David Guetta, Afrojack and Steve Aoki, will be back in Georgia's Chattahoochee Hills Sept. 25-27 and is expected to bring another windfall of spending in the state.

Last year’s TomorrowWorld spurred $93.9 million in economic activity across Georgia, including $71.8 million in the Atlanta area, during the three-day event, according to a study paid for by the event’s producers.

The 2014 numbers represent an increase from the 2013 festival, which generated economic impact calculated at $85.1 million for Georgia, with $70 million of it in Atlanta and neighboring areas, according to an earlier study.

The average TomorrowWorld visitor stayed 3.5 days in the Atlanta area, indicating that attendees from all 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico and Europe, are viewing the festival — a 21-and-older gathering — as a travel destination.

In 2013, the inaugural year that TomorrowWorld branched off from its parent festival in Belgium, TomorrowLand, which celebrates its 11th year in July, and staked out the 8,000 acres of farmland in south Fulton County, about 120,000 fans attended over the three-day period.

That fell short of the projected goal of 50,000 per day. But last year, the number bounced to 160,000 attendees for the duration of the festival, according to the report.

For 2015, organizers are optimistic about a 20 percent increase.

“We really want to become the pillar in the state of Georgia,” said Jamie Reilly, project director for TomorrowWorld and a decadelong veteran of Cirque du Soleil, while in the storage warehouse. “TomorrowWorld is not just a festival, it’s an experience and that’s what makes it so unique. We put the emphasis on the experience from the moment (attendees) buy a ticket to how they receive the ticket to how they camp with us.”

The land at Chattahoochee Hills — which TomorrowWorld has contracted for eight more years — can accommodate up to 200,000. But while a sell-out would be celebrated, producers are cautious about the growth rate.

“We want to ensure that we don’t compromise the fan experience due to the quantity of the people at the venue,” Reilly said.

TomorrowWorld will grow to nine stages in 2015 — an increase of one — including a live music stage. Last year’s popular “Atlanta Stage,” which spotlighted local acts, will return.

In a continued effort to infuse TomorrowWorld with local flavor to differentiate it from its counterparts in Belgium and the newest version of the festival in Brazil — which took place in May — organizers will hold a vendor fair as well as a job fair.

“TomorrowWorld is part of the TomorrowLand brand, and we now have three festivals yearly,” Reilly said. “But each has a unique taste to them, a unique lineup and differences and intricacies.”